Behind the rosy unemployment rate, the health sector is under strain
The most recent unemployment figures show an astounding downturn, to the lowest rates since 2008. Unemployment is but one measure of a healthy economy, however. In today’s analysis, Policy Whisperer Leonora Risse (@Leonora_Risse) examines the incredible strain that has been put upon the health care sector - an industry that is female-dominated and at the heart of the government’s COVID-19 response. Despite this, there has been surprisingly little policy interest in addressing eroding employment conditions.
Australia's unemployment rate is down to 4.2%, levels of employment and hours worked are at record highs, and workforce participation remains steady at 66.1%.
Figure 1: Number of people in employment by sector (2019, 2020, 2021). (source for all data: ABS)
How is it possible for these latest labour market figures to look so strong when so many businesses and everyday households are struggling from the impacts the pandemic?
A clue lies in the industry picture.
It’s the Healthcare and Social Assistance industry that is largely fuelling this job growth.
Comparing the pre-pandemic period of November 2019 to the latest data available in November 2021, the count of people employed in Healthcare and Social Assistance across Australia has soared by around 120,000 more workers. (Figure 1)
Figure 2: Total number of hours worked by sector (2019, 2020, 2021).
Healthcare and Social Assistance was already the economy's largest industry. Over the two years of the pandemic, it has expanded from 13.4% to 14.3% of Australia's total workforce.
It's an industry that encompasses medical practitioners and registered nurses, as well as nursing support and personal care workers, aged and disability carers, childcare workers, social workers, welfare support workers and psychologists. Women comprise around three-quarters of the industry's workforce.
The Healthcare and Social Assistance workforce has delivered 3.8 million more hours of work per month than before the pandemic. (Figure 2)
Figure 3: Healthcare and social assistance employment by hours worked per week (2019, 2020, 2021).
This huge growth in the Healthcare and Social Assistance jobs should come as no surprise when we’re in the thick of a health crisis. These workers have been a lifeline for our country to make it through the pandemic.
The concern lies in the nature of these jobs. This soaring growth in Healthcare and Social Assistance job includes almost 12,000 extra workers who are now clocking up 50 or more hours per week. (Figure 3)
In normal circumstances, higher hours worked would be considered a good sign for the economy. But under the pressures of the pandemic, our economy's record high of 18.2 million work hours includes thousands of healthcare workers who are being stretched to their limits. Not only are they working in more hazardous physical conditions, they face potential burnout, cognitive and emotional fatigue, and their own risks of psychological distress, unable to provide the quality of care they are responsible for and aspire to deliver.
News of healthcare workers reaching breaking point shows this already happening.
Figure 4: Job vacancies by sector (2019, 2020, 2021).
These factors add up to serious repercussions for longer-term sustainability of this workforce. Not just in terms of sustaining the workforce we need to get through the pandemic, but the longer-term toll that these factors could have on attracting future workers to the sector and the sector's capacity to deliver ongoing training and education.
The deep gulf in the sector's current workforce capacity is evident in the magnitude of job vacancies. There are currently over 60,000 unfilled vacancies in Australia's Healthcare and Social Assistance industry. This number is more than double pre-pandemic levels. (Figure 4)
The intensity of pressures on the Healthcare and Social Assistance workforce is not a crisis we didn't see coming. In anticipation of these pressures, there were calls for strategic investment to fortify our frontline healthcare workers from the very outset of the pandemic.
Figure 5: Average weekly earnings by sector (2019, 2020, 2021).
The challenges of equipping this sector to battle through the pandemic sit within the broader issue of this workforce not being adequately remunerated, valued and recognised for their importance, to begin with. The average earnings of Healthcare and Social Assistance workers, even when accounting for overtime hours brought on by the pandemic, remain below the workforce-wide average. (Figure 5)
This combination of factors sharpens not just the case, but the need, for meaningful improvements in the wages, work conditions, resourcing, and the professional standing of our Healthcare and Social Assistance workforce. Delivered in the form of pay, not platitudes.
This should not be an issue of "what's within the budget". This is about intelligently acknowledging the society-wide value that this workforce delivers in terms of keeping us safe, heathy and alive. Investing in the Healthcare and Social Assistance workforce is not just about getting to the other side the pandemic. This is about understanding its critical importance to the sector to the economy and to our futures.
Economic logic prescribes that, when you desperately need more of something (say, more healthcare workers to fill critical job vacancies and deliver the services you are responsible for), you should pay your workers more and avoid pushing your existing workers to the brink.
If economic logic isn't enough to convince governments and employers to invest more in our Healthcare and Social Assistance workforce, then we can only assume that something else must stand in the way. The gender composition of this workforce might have something to do with it.
This post is part of the Women's Policy Action Tank initiative to analyse government policy using a gendered lens. View our other policy analysis pieces here.
Posted by @SusanMaury